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Ever wondered what President Nixon would have said if Armstrong and Aldrin had been stranded on the lunar surface? Here's William Safire's somber typewritten message to be read to the American public in the event of their deaths.

Safire, Nixon's chief speechwriter at the time, pointed out back in a 1999 interview with Tim Russert that NASA officials were extremely worried about getting the astronauts off the moon and safely back to Earth. In preparing for the worst, if the two astronauts did not ever rendezvous back with their orbiting command module piloted by Michael Collins, this touching memorial was written for all mankind...